As she did in My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, Patricia Polacco mines an episode from her adventuresome growing-up years—and her fierce rivalry with her brother—in this fictionalized account for readers 6 to 9, illustrated with pencil and marker cartoons. Richie cannot resist teasing Trisha about her accomplishments in ballet ("Aw, I can do that with my eyes closed," he says while traipsing around on his toes), and she retorts that hockey is only "skating around in circles with a crooked stick chasing a little lump of rubber. Babies can do that!" But the fractious siblings learn to respect each other's abilities when Trisha triple-dog-dares Richie to participate in her next recital, and she agrees to skate for his team.

"[Tricia] learns the hard way how brutal the sport is, but manages to make the winning goal. Then it is her brother's turn to live up to his part of the bargain. At first he is a laughingstock, but when the male lead hurts his ankle and cannot dance, Richie comes through, and he and Trisha declare a truce. To this day, he calls her Slapshot and she calls him Dance King. This book is vintage Polacco, with pleasing pencil-and-marker illustrations that highlight each amusing moment. The endpapers display photos of the author and her brother, embellished with funny sketches of the characters. The sibling relationship is realistically depicted with honesty, childlike humor, and dead-on dialogue.... An outstanding book from a popular author."—School Library Journal